Author's Note: I know this chapter is a bit boring, but I promise it will pick up soon. It's important that this chapter sets everything up, but afterwards the action will kick in. Also, I know the names Nirdesa (Nee-r-desa) and Larcrima (Lar-kree-mah) are quite odd, but there are a couple of reasons for them. You might figure them out the further you progress through the story.

I originally wasn't going to name the main OC, but it's not easy to avoid in third person perspective. So I decided to use the name Yuu, because it's pronunciation is similar to the English word "You". It's also a unisex name and depending on how it's written it can have several meanings.


Chapter 2

Something Is Just About To Break

Yuu woke up to the sounds of footsteps. She peeked out from under her blanket, quickly noticing that it was bright. She shut her eyes, wincing at the sting. Once the pain went away, she looked again and spotted Nirdesa and Larcrima's unoccupied sleeping bags. She relaxed, remembering where she was. She shifted onto her side and stared out at the now open window.

"Hey, I see you're awake. For a moment I thought you would be sleeping the whole day away," Nirdesa said, "At least you're up now and saved me the trouble of doing so.''

Yuu turn her attention to Nirdesa and forced down a yawn from escaping. "Ugh, I'm so tired," she said, sitting up and stretching her sore body.

"I'm not surprise. You were the last one to fall asleep."

"And how do you know that?" she asked, getting up from her sleeping bag.

"My mom said she heard you moving around and came in to check if you were okay."

"Oh. And where's Larcrima?" she asked, putting her sleeping bag away, along with a few of her scattered clothes.

"She's down stairs eating breakfast. We should go and eat too," Nirdesa said, rubbing her eyes.

Yuu nodded and quickly went to the bathroom changing her clothes. Once she was done she entered the room again, putting those clothes away.

"Were you up for long?" she asked, following Nirdesa downstairs.

"Yeah, you know how I am in the mornings. I'm surprise my body is still functioning right now when I'm so use to sleeping in. After all, it's summer and that's means staying up and sleeping in," she said, sleepily.

"I know what you mean," Yuu laughed, stretching her arms over her head. "Uh, why did Larcrima wake us up early?" she moaned, feeling cranky.

"She's the one making us get up? What for?" Yuu asked, curious. 'Larcrima is not a morning person either. So why in the world is she awake?' she thought.

"I'm not sure. She said something about being hungry and that she was listening to the news while she was making breakfast," Nirdesa said, tying her hair into a messily bun. "Whatever it was must have freaked her out."

"Hmmm, she doesn't get concern easily and that's what worries me," Yuu said. She ran her hand through her hair hoping to get some of the knots out.

"You're lucky that she didn't wake you up first," Nirdesa said, looking at Yuu. She pick up a brush from her desk and threw it at her. Yuu caught it, grateful to get the stubborn knots out of her easily tangled hair.

"Why?" Yuu asked. 'I'm guessing she threaten to use water on her,' she thought. She finish brushing her hair and put it in a ponytail.

"She kept poking me. It was annoying and what was worst was that she was making comments about my crush. I'll get her back for that later," Nirdesa said, smiling, but her eyes glinted wickedly for a second.

Yuu looked at her and smile carefully while sweat-dropping. 'Never ever do any poking when she's in a bad mood or sleeping,' she thought.

After five minutes of being upstairs Nirdesa and Yuu, walked down the stairs and entered the kitchen. Yuu was the first to spot Larcrima eating pancakes and watching the news on the small television that was sitting on top of the fridge.

"Hey," Nirdesa said, dully. She stopped walking to yawned and then continue on to the seat next to Larcrima.

"Morning," Yuu said, as she passed by Larcrima and sat down in front of her.

"Morning," she replied, just as dully.

Yuu and Nirdesa sat down. In the middle of the table there was a plate of pancakes, syrup, a bowl, utensils, a cereal box and a carton of milk.

"I'm so tired," Yuu moan, dropping her head against the table. She force herself to sit up straight, grabbing the plate of pancakes. She added some syrup to them and took a bite. Feeling thirsty, Yuu got up and got a glass of chocolate milk. While Nirdesa grabbed the the cereal.

"It's too early in the morning, it's to be expected," Larcrima said, stabbing her last piece of pancake.

"True," Nirdesa said. Yuu nodded her head in agreement.

"So what's going on in the news?" Yuu asked as she turned to the television. On the screen there was a red warning sign flashing behind the reporter. Despite his calm appearance, he sounded frightened.

"They are talking about sightings of a creature, or creatures around the world," Larcrima answered, staring attentively to the television.

"Really? What's the big deal about that?" Nirdesa quipped, munching on her cereal. "It sounds like a hoax."

"It's not. They're saying that there are little yellow things, eyes, that are appearing at night and people who get to close to them disappear," she answered, turning to Nirdesa. "They haven't been able to get much information about whatever it is because of that."

"Disappearing?" Yuu asked, knitting her eyebrows together. 'Is this connected to the yellow eyes that I saw last night?' she thought.

"It's like they disappeared into thin air. There has been some footage from several store's security cameras and amateur videos, showing these things everywhere and what happens when people get to close to it. There's also reports of people disappearing, in the thousands I think and they are asking for everyone to stay indoors at night. People are panicking and stocking up on supplies too," Larcrima said, seriously. "They're even increasing police patrols and closing off area where these things appear."

"Wow, that bad? What are these things that people keep talking about?" Nirdesa questioned. She finished her cereal and grabbed Larcrima's empty plate as well to bring to the kitchen sink.

"I've been keeping track of the news this week and it has been getting worst. At first, the reports of disappearance were few and unrelated. But it wasn't until someone caught evidence of it happening that they started to consider that there's a connection with them all," Larcrima said, "Some people are suggesting that this has been going on since last week, that it was happening to the homeless people, then the druggies, prostitutes, and criminals. Basically people that police don't put too much effort into helping or caring about. So until those with upstanding backgrounds starting disappearing too, then they started to care and they're the ones that made it into the news. As for those things, they don't know where they're coming from or what they are. It's just too dark for anyone to see. Any flashlights used end up dying whenever people are too close to it, especially when aiming the lights at those things. All they know is that there are a lot of them because only their eyes are visible. Unless it's just one huge monster that has a lot of eyes."

"Hasn't anyone tried to kill it?" Nirdesa asked.

"I'm sure a few have tried. It would explain how the news knows that if you kill one that more will take it's place," said Larcrima, "That could mean there's just too many of them. Or who knows, maybe it grows more heads like a hydra. But they're pretty sure it's not just one huge creature though."

"Do you think they are here too?" Yuu asked, tapping her fork against her empty cup. "It's just strange that this, whatever it is, is happening suddenly…like why now?" 'Those things from last night…that was them,' she thought, frowning.

"I don't know," Larcrima said, "there's a lot that's going on that we don't know yet."

All three of them turned back to the television as attention-grabbing music cut through the air and the screen behind the reporter changed.

"This breaking news update is just in! It is still unclear how many people have disappeared, but the number continues to grow. The military and police forces are working together to find a way to keep the yellow eye creatures at bay. Their efforts are not having much effect, but they advise residents to stay indoors and to avoid going out at night. These creatures are only active at night, which is why a curfew has been put into place for 8 pm. On our website we have a map marked with the areas in which these creatures have been known to appear. Raquel Almodovar, our field reporter has managed to capture a decent photo of what it is that the nation is dealing with."

A slightly blurry image of a dark creature with glowing yellow eye appeared on the screen. It wasn't a clear photo but it helped people put a face to what was taking people.

"Please, we stress that everyone stay indoors and limit your activities to only the day. There hasn't been any incidents of them entering homes and attacking people. But if they do please do not confront them. It's best that you hide or run away, and contact your local authority. We highly advise you to not panic! Local forces are doing everything they can to keep everything under control," the reported said.

The scene changed to where people were fighting other people on the streets and the police trying to keep order. Then it changed to a store where people were looting and at the sound of police coming they all scatter with their looted items.

''Wow, they are acting like it's the end of the world," Nirdesa said, grabbing the remote, "Every disaster seems to bring out the worst in people."

"It's stupid. The news is just making it worst by telling people to stay indoors. I mean it's understandable and it makes sense, but they are already panicking and it makes other people panic. Get what I mean?" Larcrima said, snatching the remote from Nirdesa.

"Yeah," Yuu said, taking the remote from Larcrima who was holding it away from Nirdesa.

Yuu stared at them apathy for a few seconds then back to the television and flip through the channels. Each channel showed the same thing. Even the normal schedule programs were showing the yellow eye creatures appearing in different areas of the world. 'I haven't watch the news lately, so all this feels like it's happening so fast. But if Lacrima says is true, this has been building up for a while and it's more obviously now,' she thought.

"Oh, it's everywhere," Larcrima said, looking at the television. "I thought it was just us that were dealing with this.

"Okay, now I want to panic," Nirdesa said, smiling nervously. She fidgeted around, trying to keep calm. She noticed that Yuu's cup was empty and to keep her hands busy, she got up and took it to the kitchen sink. Then she started washing the some of the dirty dishes and putting the rest into the dish washer.

"I do too, but it's important to stay calm and keep your head clear," Larcrima sighed, staring at the television. "Panicking just makes the situation even worst."

"You got that right, but it's hard to stay calm. You both know how I can get when something worries me," Nirdesa said, placing the plates in the drying dish rack.

Yuu turned off the television and got up from the kitchen. She walked towards the living room, pass the piano and went to the window. Lacrima and Nirdesa soon followed her, also looking out the window. 'I got this horrible unsettling feeling in my stomach. Like something bad is gonna happen today…no, tonight,' she thought. 'In the darkness…'

"Wow, I didn't expect to see so many people running around," Lacrima said.

"Me too," Nirdesa agreed. She walked over to her couch and sat down. "I live on a busy street so it's always full of people and cars, but not this much. Now that I think of it, I was finding it weird that lately when it got closer to night the less people I saw. I guess this explains why."

"Everyone's trying to get stuff done before nightfall. They kinda look like chickens with their heads cut off," Yuu said, scanning the area for any of those dark creatures. Seeing none, she and Lacrima joined Nirdesa. Yuu sat down on her right while Lacrima sat on her left.

"What are we going to do?" Lacrima asked, worried.

"Obviously it's not safe outside, especially at night," Yuu said, fiddling with her fingers. "Even if we stay inside there's no guarantee that we'll be safe either. The news doesn't know anything for sure. All they're going by is from educated guesses and observation."

"Even if we stayed indoors there are other issues that we have to deal with," Nirdesa said, moaning with frustration. "Like how long will this last? What about food? How will we stay sane? What if the military, the police and whoever else loses the fight against those creatures? What will happen to us after that? What if the electricity goes out? What happens if those things get us? Do we-"

"Calm down. We get it. There's a lot we have to deal with, but thinking about it all at once is going to overwhelm you. The best thing we can do is to focus on one thing at a time," Lacrima cut in, before Nirdesa could ramble on some more.

"She's right. No matter what's going on, zombie apocalypse, end of the world, alien invasion or who knows what, we have to stay level headed," Yuu said, rubbing her forehead in hopes it will prevent a headache from appearing. "Letting our mind become clouded with fear will end up making our situation worst and we'll be making the wrong decisions that can cost us dearly."

"Okay. Do you guys think this is an alien invasion?" Nirdesa asked, worriedly.

"It's possible. They can't possibly be from Earth. But who knows? We've never seen anything like them before," Yuu stated. 'What are they? Aliens? Demons? An experiment gone wrong? A new type of animal that hasn't been discover until now? Or something else entirely?'

"Well, it's better than them being zombies," Lacrima said, wincing, "That would have been so much worst."

"Where's your mom, Nirdesa?" Yuu asked, looking around.

"She left a note saying she went out to the super market," Nirdesa said, "and my dad went with her too."

"Oh.''

''I should call my mom," Lacrima said, leaning over to poke Yuu. She stare at her confused, until Lacrima pointed over to her side. She looked over and saw that on her left was the cordless phone. She picked it up and handed it over to her.

"Thanks.''

She dial her house number and waited for her mom to pick up. Yuu and Nirdesa waited quietly, watching as Lacrima got up and pace around the room. After three minutes of pacing, dialing again and not saying anything, she hanged up the phone off.

''I'm not getting any respond. I keep calling and all I'm getting is the busy signal," Lacrima said, worriedly, "I even tried her cell."

"Try again later and see if it works then. Or maybe a fourth time will work?" Nirdesa said. She got up and went to get her cell phone. Lacrima did just that and again it still didn't work.

"Now, I want to call my parents too," Nirdesa said, with her cell phone already out and ringing. A minute later she put down the phone and plopped onto the sofa.

"That was pointless and I'm worry," she said, throwing her hands up in frustration, "I completely forgot that when there's a disaster or something similar, that everyone is trying to call their love ones at the same time. The result is that all the phone lines and cell phones are busy. If it gets to be too much, all the systems become overloaded and stop working."

"I think we should postpone the rest of this sleep over for next time. I need to head home and see if everything is okay there," Lacrima said, heading upstairs to get her things. "Even though I don't get along with my mother, she's still my mom and the only family I have. I'll feel guilty if something were to happen and I wasn't there with her."

"Are you sure? They did say to stay indoors," Nirdesa questioned, "But I'm not going to stop you if you want to leave. It's not like everyone is listening to the news anyway. There are still a bunch of people outside. So I don't think anyone will try to pull something with the police patrolling the area."

''Yeah, it's better that I get home soon as possible," she said, pausing at the top of the stairs, "before the situation gets worst."

She left, leaving Yuu and Nirdesa downstairs.

"Lacrima makes a good point. It's best that I leave too. I know my parents need me in a situation like this. I assume you're going to go to the supermarket?" Yuu asked, moving away from the window and walking towards the stairs.

Nirdesa grabbed her house keys from the wall hook and followed Yuu.

"First, I'm going to walk you and Lacrima to your bus stops. I don't want to worry about you guys not making it there. Then, I'll worry if you two got home safely," Nirdesa said. "Are you sure you don't want to wait until my parents comes home to give the both of you a ride?"

"No, that's okay. We don't know how long it will take for them to get back. Lacrima is right, it can get worst and we better go when we're able to. I wouldn't be surprise if the traffic is bad," Yuu said, entering Nirdesa's bedroom and pausing at the entrance to look at her. "It's probably why your parents are talking a while to come back. If not, it's definitely because there are long check out lines. I remember last month there was a major storm alert with flood warning and strong winds. Everyone went out to stocked up on supplies and it turned out to be nothing."

"I'll try not to stress out about it and worry too much. But that would also mean that the buses will be effected too. There's still a bunch of people running around last time we checked."

"True. If the buses are stuck in traffic, I'll just walk home. It's not that far," Yuu said, entering the room and nodding at Lacrima, who was struggling with her over packed bag. Nirdesa came over, and helped pushed down on the bag in order for her to zipped it closed.

"You're joking right? It's a long ass walk," she said, "and it's hot. I don't know how you do it."

Yuu shrugged, packing the rest of her things away. "I try not to rely too much on the bus, so sometimes I walk. It's good to exorcise my legs once in a while."

"I'll try to call or text you even though it may not work," Lacrima said, swinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Me too. If I can't contact you through the phone I'll try the computer," Yuu said, strapping on her backpack. "Maybe, it will work."

"Okay, so what's the plan for when something goes wrong?" Nirdesa asked.

"We need a place to meet," Lacrima stated.

"That sounds good, but where? It needs to be somewhere safe and that we all know of," Yuu said, biting her bottom lip. "Usually in natural disasters, hospitals, churches, community centers, schools and sometimes stadiums are use as shelters to provide relief."

"Good idea. How about the school?" Nirdesa suggested, "We all know where it is, it's not far from our homes and it's safe. If things get really bad, it has a fallout shelter and we know the school like the back of our hands. It's also not yet closed for the summer and it hasn't been that long since we've graduated either. So it's not like it would be weird to see us there. Nor would it be that difficult to convince the guards to let us in."

"The school? That can work," Yuu said, nodding.

"Same here," Lacrima agreed, "But what if the school isn't reachable? We need another option."

"Nothing is coming to mind," Nirdesa said.

"Maybe my place? I know it's a bit away, but it's big enough to fit us all. Plus, there's a market store, a church, and a elementary school all within walking distance," Yuu suggested.

"That can work. We all know where it is. Even though it's a bit farther away from me, it is easy to get to. Plus, if anything was to happen we have those places to fall back on as well. Will your parents be okay with us crashing there?" Lacrima asked.

"No. But if this really is an emergency or end of the world kind of thing, it'll be the least of their worries," Yuu stated, "We'll be safer and stronger to face whatever happens together than apart."

"I can't think of any other place we can go to. So, yeah, your place is plan b if the school isn't available," Nirdesa quipped, "And if your place doesn't work out, than it's a good thing there are other options."

"When we get back home, we should pack some sort of emergency bag. Like first aid, extra clothes, non-perishable food, water, sleeping bags, blankets and whatnot. So that way, if something were to happen we can just grab it and go," Yuu said, thinking out loud.

"Good idea," Larcrima agreed.

"So this is the plan. If our neighborhood isn't safe at all or our home isn't, then we'll head straight go to the school. However, if our home is safe for the time being, we'll take the chance to pack a couple of emergency bags. And if the school isn't safe then we'll head to Yuu's place. If Yuu's place isn't safe, we can go to the church or school in her area. Anything else to add?" Nirdesa inquired.

"No. I think that's all," Yuu voiced.

"Before we go, I want to write a message to my parents in case they come home," Nirdesa quipped, "I don't want them to freak out if we're not here."

Nirdesa grabbed a notebook from on top of the coffee table and torn a piece a paper from it. She wrote a message to her parents and taped the message onto the hallway wall next to the front door.

"There's no way they'll miss that," she said, "Let's go."

With that, all three of them went out of the house. Nirdesa locked up, leading Yuu and Lacrima to their bus stops.

Despite it being pretty busy, many of the other streets were empty and quite a few stores were closed. 'I guess it just seem crowded because it's a main street and it's always busy. But people aren't interested in shoes and dresses at this time. So it's not surprising to see that most of these shops are closed. More will probably close earlier, before the curfew. People will be more focus in getting food and more important things,' Yuu mused.

Lacrima was the first to leave the group. Her home was in the opposite direction of Yuu, while Nirdesa was in the middle of them. It was also one of the reasons they decided a sleepover at Nirdesa's place was better. 'Four, no five years of friendship and I have yet to actually visit Larcrima's home. Both of our homes are quite a distance apart from each other, but that is no excuse. She has visited my home twice and it's not exactly fair that I haven't. When all this settles down, I'm definitely going to make the effort to visit her.'

"This is it. The bus should take you straight down. I hope you make it home safe. Remember, if anything happens you know where to go right?" Nirdesa questioned, watching as the bus came closer. It stopped, opening the doors.

"I do. Thanks for the sleep over. I wish it could have ended well but next time it'll be better," Yuu said, climbing the steps and turning to look at her.

"It will be way better. See you later then," she replied, waving.

"Yeah, see you later!" Yuu shouted, before the doors close. She turned back to the bus driver and saw him glaring at her for making him wait.

"Sorry," she apologized, while giving him her bus ticket and going to the back of the bus to sit down. 'Why did that goodbye sound like it'll be the last time I see her and Lacrima again? I keep getting this feeling that something will happen or going to happen. Maybe I'm being an idiot because I just don't like saying goodbyes?' she thought, staring out the window. She watched as the bus got farther away from Nirdesa's form.

The bus wasn't too crowded. It seem like more people decided to walk on foot to avoid the traffic. Though there was still plenty of traffic on the road. 'It's gonna be a while until I reach home,'

Yuu nodded off, but awoke when the bus jumped from a pothole. She jerked, and stood up quickly. She looked around, noticing that she was the only one on the bus besides the bus driver.

Finding herself feeling lonely, she walked over to the front and sat next to the door. She looked up to the bus driver and stare at him for a bit, trying to find a way to start a conversion.

"Hi, um, I'm sorry again for earlier. I didn't mean to make you wait," she said, eyeing the streets.

"It's all right. I'm a bit jumpy," he replied, keeping his eyes on the road. "And it's been a long day, but that doesn't mean I should take it out on you."

"It's understandable," she said, looking out the window, "With everything that's going on, it's hard to not be stressful about it. I'm sure that some people don't make it easy for you either."

"Yeah, that's for sure. People seem to lose the ability to think straight when something goes wrong. It's even worst then things start to fall apart."

"If you don't mind me asking, why come to work?" she replied, perplexed.

"I have a job to do. Just like the police, the fireman, and the government officials still have. Just because things are bad, it doesn't give us the right to abandon our responsibilities to the people."

"I see," she said, smiling. 'I didn't consider that. I just thought he was forced to work at a time like this.'

Yuu looked out the window, noticing that the streets were becoming less and less of people and cars. She wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not, considering she was getting closer to her home. Her area was mostly quiet and it'll be difficult to tell if something was wrong with it.

"There's barely any traffic around here," she stated, frowning.

"That's because not that many are using the buses in this area," he said. "No one has a reason to be come here, unless they live here. Or they're all staying home. Downtown is where all the activity is at and it's a lot more crowded than usual."

Yuu pressed the yellow tape and stood up holding the metal bar near her.

"Wow," she replied, alarmed. "I guess it makes sense to stay close to home, than go far. And everything is within walking distance here. So if they need something, it's usually around the corner."

"It's the smart thing to do," he said, stopping the bus.

"Thanks for the ride," she said, nodding her head.

"You're welcome. But there's no need to thank me. I'm just doing my job," he acknowledged, pulling the stick to open the doors. "Take care and be careful."

"I will and I hope you'll be careful too," she exclaimed, giving a small wave goodbye and leaving the bus.

She turned and watched as the bus driver close the doors. He nodded to her before driving off. She sighed and started walking home. It was silent, her sneakers scarping against the concrete was the only sound. No one was around and most of the stores appear closed. 'It's abnormally quiet,' she thought, frowning. 'Where are the birds? The wind shaking the leaves on the trees?'

She turned the corner, walking down the street and keeping an eye out for people. 'Nothing, not even the neighbor's dogs are outside barking at me as I pass by. They always do.'

She reached her building, pulling out her keys and unlocking the door. She quickly locked the door behind her and hurried up the stairs to her apartment. She entered inside, realizing that it was just as silent. 'Even though my family is the only ones living in this entire building, it shouldn't be this quiet. Where's the sound of my dad listening to the radio as he tries to fix a broken flashlight? Where's the sound of my mom getting a head start on lunch?'

She walked around kitchen, noticing that there were dirty dishes in the sink. 'So they had breakfast,' she thought, 'But around this time my mom should have been in the kitchen making lunch. So where is she and my dad? They should have heard me coming up the stairs.'

Yuu, headed to the living room, but something made a strange noise in the porch. 'Is that them?!'

She ran to it, but her foot got caught on the rug. She tripped, her book bag siding off her shoulder, blocking her arms from catching herself. As she fell, she banged her head on a side table that was next to the couch. Her vision went dark and the last thing she heard was something skittering across floor.